Dead in the water, Worcester Sharks get win

Monday

Nov 12, 2012 at 6:00 AM

As the Sharks stumbled their way down the stretch last season, Roy Sommer found it hard to fall asleep on the way too many nights. Just as he figured that would be the case last night, but for a different reason.

By Bill Ballou TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

As the Sharks stumbled their way down the stretch last season, Roy Sommer found it hard to fall asleep on the way too many nights.

Just as he figured that would be the case last night, but for a different reason.

“I’m not going to be able to get to sleep,” Sommer said with excitement yesterday after his team’s 4-3 shootout victory over the Providence Bruins in Worcester’s most exciting game of the season. “When I get home, it’s gonna be chicken wings and beer for me.”

The Sharks trailed Providence yesterday, 3-1, going into the third period, and were coming off an atrocious 20 minutes in which they had been outscored, 2-0, and outshot, 13-3.

Two power play goals in the third period, one by Bracken Kearns and the other by Brandon Mashinter, guaranteed Worcester of at least one point, then John McCarthy, Jon Matsumoto and finally Mashinter scored in the shootout to put the Maraschino cherry on top of the Sunday sundae.

“Down by two going into the third period, playing the last game of a three-in-three, I don’t know how they came back like that. It shows a lot of character.”

Worcester is 5-1-1 in its last seven games and has begun to establish itself as a playoff contender, or even a contender for the top spot in the Atlantic Division.

Al Stalock got the win in net, stopping 34 shots. He improved to 6-2-0 for the season and is riding a six-game winning streak.

Yanni Gourde had the other goal for Worcester. Jamie Tardif, Ryan Spooner and Garnet Exelby scored for Providence, which had a 24-11 edge in shots after two periods.

In the third period, the Sharks came out with a lot more life than they had in the first 40 minutes, which wasn’t that difficult. Both of their goals were on power plays, both on deflections. Kearns tipped in Matt Tennyson’s shot at 6:26 and Mashinter got a blade on Matt Irwin’s shot at 11:22.

Kearns, whose six goals lead the Sharks, was asked how the same players wearing the same uniforms could look so bad for 40 minutes, then so good for 25.

“I don’t know,” he replied with a shrug. “It’s weird, but it’s hockey. It’s usually little things that do it. You have one little thing that you do and you build on that.”

Gourde gave Worcester the lead at 11:11 of the first period with his third goal of the season, but just his first in nine games. He was stationed in front of the Bruins net on the forecheck and was in perfect position to retrieve a giveaway by Providence defenseman Steve Bartkowski.

Before goalie Michael Hutchinson had a chance to react, Gourde sizzled a wrist shot inside the right post. The Sharks retained that lead for a while, but not for a long while — about five minutes.

Providence tied it on Tardif’s power play goal at 16:05. He finished off a terrific passing play after taking a pass from Spooner, who had it behind the Worcester net. This was strictly a no-chancer for Stalock and, for Tardif the goal was sort of hitting the Green Monster at Fenway with a basketball while standing on the warning track.

At that, a 1-1 tie wasn’t an unreasonable result of the first 20 minutes from the Sharks’ standpoint, but things got unreasonable quickly. At 1:06 of the second period, Danny Groulx mishandled the puck near the Sharks’ blue line and Spooner got control of it.

He zipped in through the right circle and snapped a high, hard backhand under the crossbar. The unassisted goal gave Providence a 2-1 lead. Exelby, not known as a goal scorer, got his second of the season at 6:18. He sent a 40-foot slap shot from just above the left circle just inside the near post.

Then came Worcester’s third-period comeback to tie it. The Sharks outplayed the Bruins in OT, but could not connect. They finally won it late in the shootout with Mashinter connecting on the fifth try, then Stalock denying Kyle MacKinnon for the victory.

That left one question to be answered — barbecue or honey mustard?

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